Young Aboriginal people die from suicide at five times the national rate and elders from a remote Northern Territory community are trying to save lives with a new app.
Photograph: John Miles/Getty Images

Self-harm is the leading killer of young Indigenous people but elders from one remote Northern Territory community bucking that trend hope to save lives by bringing their traditional wisdom into the digital age.

Warlpiri elders from Lajamanu have partnered with the Black Dog Institute to develop Australia’s first Indigenous community-led suicide prevention app.

If that goes well, they want to expand the app for sectors of the non-Indigenous community struggling with high suicide rates, such as farmers in rural areas.

Dr Fiona Shand, of the Black Dog Institute, says Aboriginal suicide rates have been increasing over the past decade and Indigenous men aged between 25 and 29 take their own lives at the highest rate in the world.